Both the blue and the yellow side of Hong Kong agree on one thing - the government is terribly incompetent. To the Yellow it is so because the government insists on treating the political issue as a matter of public security. To the Blue it is so because the government has not been able to suppress the uprising.
The opening up of the political process for wider participation, which was promised, has not happened. The police is getting increasingly brutal. The housing situation is absurd and hopeless. Upward mobility has become just a pipe dream for so many. And so the list of ills goes on.
We used to be so proud of our orderly, peaceful massive protest marches. Yet even when millions of people come out to the street to protest, paralysing all the traffic on the north side of Hong Kong Island, the government did not budge a bit. Instead, it arrogantly pushed ahead with a hugely unpopular, terrible law of extradition, dismissing the peaceful protests as just so much noise. It really pissed off the people
Some desperate people pushed harder, physically. The police fired tear gas. Some protesters started throwing bricks. More tear gas, rubber bullets, more powerful weapons. Some protesters started throwing fire bombs, and even more lethal stuff. And we ended up with massive disruption of traffic, and the siege of universities. Now some protesters are claiming that violent revolution is the only way forward. It seems the both sides got sucked into more and more violence, bit by bit. It was not something consciously planned after careful and clear thinking and strategising.
But is Hong Kong really so desperately bad that we must fight on the streets with our lives on the line? Judging from the actual behaviour, not the rhetoric, of the majority of the protesters, it is painfully clear that the even the majority of the protesters on the street and at the siege of the universities think no. Most were afraid to go to jail. Most were scared of being hurt. Most curious is that many of those who advocate violence were not on the frontline themselves. Yes, the situation is bad. The government is incompetent, even operating in bad faith. The police is brutal and arbitrary. But it is not so bad that we should kill ourselves - yet.
Hong Kong remains one of the freest societies in the world. We can come and go as we please, as long as we can afford it. We can criticise pretty much everybody, even the government, even the police, without having to go to jail, yet. We even have some elections. We would like more, of course. But it is not like we have none. We enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world. We can go to good universities if we have good academic results, or if we are rich.
Yes, the situation is deteriorating in many aspects. The establishment is trying to tighten control, to restrict participation in the political process, to control what we learn and what we say, exploitation is getting worse. We have to be vigilant. We have to have the courage to speak up. We have to fight to participate in the political process. We have to be willing to pay some price. To suffer a bit in terms of job and business opportunities. We can refuse to do business with the people who support the oppressors. We have to fight in the media. We have to fight in the elections.
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